things change - byler

.27

TW⚠️

I sat in the principals office, by myself waiting for the principal to walk in.
he was still talking to Troy by himself, it made me nervous.
my knuckles felt sore, my hands shook because of what I just did. The part that scared me the most wasn't that I hit him, but I couldn't stop. my body wouldn't let me stop, my mind told me to keep going. i was so angry, it was like something overcame my body. Mike looked at me, like he was scared of me. He encouraged me to do this, I didn't mean to make him unconscious. My thoughts were eating me alive, I shook my leg back and forth waiting for him to walk in.
after what seemed like 10 hours, the officer and principals walked in and sat in front of me.
I wasn't the only one that got hurt, he had punched me. I could feel the side of my face slightly swelling and a fresh cut bleeding on my eyebrow.
-"william byers, why don't you tell me what you think happened." The principal asked me, trying to be calm.
-"well, he was pushing me. Making remarks about me and my family. I guess I just snapped." I sighed, shamefully.
-"your lucky if he doesn't press charges." the police officer said.
-"he started it!" I protested.
-"you swung first!" he snarled.
I sat back in my chair, before I saw hopper walking in the office.
-"what happened?" He asked.
-"fight broke out, this kid broke another's nose. He's claiming he started it, but the camera footage won't show up." The officer explained to him.
-"okay, we'll this is a waist of time. The kid will be fine, I'm taking him home." He said, grabbing my arm and pulling me up.
the other officers protested, but hop wouldn't listen.
we walked out of the office, I saw my friends waiting outside on the chairs for us, and they stood up when I walked out with hopper.
-"c'mon El, we're going home." He said as we passed by her.
I looked at mike before walking away, he saw what had happened to my face. He looked guilty and sad. At least I wasn't the one who got seriously hurt. I could tell hopper was angry, I couldn't imagine what my mom was going to say.
el kept on bothering me the whole way home, asking what happened.
I ignored her, trying to clear my mind.
Once we got home, it was worse.
we walked inside the living room, my mom was waiting and when she saw my face, her face was baffled.
-"Jesus, what happened?" she asked, touching the open cut on my eyebrow. I winced slapping her hand away.
-"a fight between him and Troy Harrington is what happened. You could've killed him." He yelled at me.
-"he'll be fine!" I yelled back, stressed out.
-"why, what happened?" Joyce asked, but being ignored.
-"he might be pressing charges, you broke his nose!! I could lose my job!" he yelled.
-"dad, calm down!" El yelled.
-"you?? what about me?? he tried to fucking rape me and all you can think about is yourself?!" I blurted out, shocking all of them.
I couldn't even comprehend what I just told them, I just started punching hopper.
-"you piece of shit!! I fucking hate you, you prick!!" I pushed him into the wall, as he tried to calm me down.
-"stop it, kid!" He tried stopping me.
I ran out the front door and sprinted as far as I could away from home.
They all ran outside on the sidewalk watching me.
-"WILL!!" They all yelled, but I ran into the woods and away from them.

I ran, completely breaking down by myself. I felt like a bad person. They found out about it, maybe I am ready.. just not for everyone to know.
I stopped in a random and empty alley way before I stopped running. I kicked around all the trash bags around me in anger, I didn't know what to feel. What does mike feel about it? It was just a fight. It wasn't like I tried to kill him or anything, I just punched him a few times.
i sat on the floor, wiping the tears from my face. Now that my mom knows, she's never going to send me back to school. She's going to be so pissed, she might actually kill someone. I just needed a hug, I couldn't even cry anymore at this point. Nothing would come out, I just needed comfort.
I pulled my Walkman and headphones out to listen to music, that was the only thing that could possibly keep me calm tonight.
The first song to play was mikes favorite song. I missed him, he always knew what to say or to do when I was feeling down. I needed him right now. But right now, I had nobody but myself.

•••

after school, I drove everyone in my car to wills house. We were all worried for him all day, I called his phone during lunch, he never picked up.
I stopped my car outside his house and we all quickly walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell.
Joyce answered the door after I rang it twice more, she looked like she had been crying, she was a mess.
-"Mrs Byers?" I tilt my head.
El makes her way through the door and walked outside with us, shutting the door behind her.
-"what happened?" I asked.
-"did you guys know Will was sexually assaulted by Troy?" She said, looking sick.
max and I looked at each other, Lucas and Dustin were beyond shocked but max and I were the only people who knew.
-"how do you know that?" Max asked.
-"hopper was yelling at him, Will just blurted it out and ran away. we haven't seen him in hours, he just bolted." she said, looking nervous.
-"we have to find him, let's go!" I said, running back to my car.
They all followed, and we drove around town all evening.
We checked the park, the school, everywhere. He was nowhere to be seen. We couldn't keep looking after it got dark out, it broke my heart thinking something could've happened to him.
I dropped off everyone before max, I stopped outside her trailer.
-"what do we do?" Max asked.

-"I don't know. All I know is that troy is going to want revenge, we need to find him soon."

-"before he does."